DURHAM, N.C. — A sheriff's deputy pulled over a Cadillac Escalade with a Michigan plate recently because it was moving erratically on a local highway. What has spilled out of that SUV since is an eerily consistent story of teenage runaways so desperate to fit in that they fell prey to Internet lurkers and set off on a cross-country odyssey with two men.

Their goal seemed to be to collect other runaways from across the country and to create a "new Eden" in California, where they would hunt and fish.

One of the runaways, a 13-year-old from Baltimore, was in a Durham courtroom earlier this month, offering details of a plot so incredible that at one point her mother tearfully blurted out: "This is like some kind of terrible movie."

Now two men from out of state, Ryan Wurzel, 20, and Hang Wu, 22, are being held in the Durham County jail on charges of kidnapping, possession of a stolen weapon, possession of a stolen vehicle and, in one case, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Investigators are looking into possible sex-trafficking ties.

"After 14 years as a judge, I have never seen anything like this," said Marcia Morey, the district court judge who presided over the juvenile hearings on whether the teens should be returned to their parents.

The story began May 28 in Michigan. A 15-year-old boy packed two .22 rifles, a filet knife and a suitcase into his mother's Escalade and began the first leg of a journey that would take him from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Hazelton, Pa., then to Silver Spring, Md., Baltimore, and eventually Durham. Along the way, he picked up four teenage girls who ranged in age from just barely 13 to 15.

The teens' names are being kept private.

In Hazelton, a former coal town in the Pocono Mountains, Wu and Wurzel, each purporting to be homeless, joined the carload. Wu, who came to the United States from China on a student visa, had taken a bus from New York to Pennsylvania. Wurzel, described by law-enforcement officers as the mastermind of the plan, had come in from Delaware, his home state.

The group had planned to pick up two other young people, possibly in Florida or California, after they left Durham.

The teens had never met each other or the two adults. But all claimed to be familiar with each other from the Experience Project, a website at www.experienceproject.com that has the hook "Find people who understand you."

The pages offer numerous photos and comments on such topics as parenting, dating and relationships, food, health, family, travel, hobbies, the military and politics.

"We comply with all laws regarding investigation and removal of any inappropriate content, and partner with law enforcement as appropriate," the company said in an email.

Through text messages, private Facebook posts and cellphone calls, the men and teens planned a new life for themselves on the West Coast, according to testimony. They had ambitions of being a family -- a nurturing one they were certain would alleviate the angst, depression and common aches of teenage life.

The boy who took his mother's Escalade in Michigan did not have a driver's license to make the 1,000-mile journey. But after posting on Facebook that he wanted to run away and was looking for people to run away with, he left his home state the day after returning from a Memorial Day vacation with his family, according to testimony.

The Durham girl got on board the Escalade with the six others just before 1 a.m. on May 30. As she was instructed, she sneaked out of her family's home with a suitcase and as much money as she could collect.

Wurzel had detailed their plans online.

"We can go live in our own little community and call it our Eden," the mother of one of the girls said Wurzel wrote on The Experience Project website.

The men are being held in Durham County Jail on $1.6 million bond each. The teens have all been released to the custody of their parents.